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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoEric Albrecht | DispatchChelsea Sherman, 23, an Ohio State grad student, lunges through the “bungee run” at an event yesterday to welcome students. OSU’s second school year on semesters begins today.

Many Ohio colleges that saw their enrollments shrink after switching to semesters last year are
happy just to be holding steady as fall classes are about to start.

“A year ago, there was a big drop. You don’t just jump up from that,” said Mabel Freeman,
interim vice president of student affairs at Columbus State Community College, where classes start
today.

After several years of explosive growth, enrollment at Columbus State last fall dropped to
25,650 students — nearly 13 percent fewer than had been anticipated. That was on top of coming in
10 percent below projections for the summer before.

Columbus State is expecting roughly the same number of students this week. And officials say
they are OK with that because of the declining numbers of Ohio high-school graduates and adults in
need of training.

“We might not get back to our historic highs, at least not anytime soon,” Freeman said.

Other schools expect to have close to as many students as before the switch to semesters — if
not more.

“We expect to be up 1.5 percent, which might not sound like a lot but works out to about 950
more students,” said Dolan Evanovich, vice president for strategic enrollment planning at Ohio
State University, where classes also start today. “That’s pretty good.”

All told, Ohio State projects that it will have slightly more than 64,000 students on its
Columbus campus and its five regional campuses this fall. That’s in the neighborhood of the record
64,400 students at OSU in 2011.

The university also served nearly 1,000 more students this summer than it did two years ago, and
5,600 more than last year when only returning students could attend summer classes.

Some schools likely will see decreases, but aren’t eager to publicize them until enrollment
figures become final on the 15th day of the semester.

Last fall, enrollment at the 17 state colleges and universities that adopted a semester calendar
dropped by nearly 13,000 students combined. Although schools typically experience a dip in student
numbers when they change to semesters, several Ohio campuses dropped more than expected.

Hardest hit were two-year schools, including Columbus State, Central Ohio Technical College and
Hocking College — all of which had to make budget cuts to make up for double-digit losses. Columbus
State, for example, made $17 million in reductions by not filling positions, delaying equipment
replacement, reducing the budget for adjunct faculty members and limiting travel and conference
attendance.

Two weeks before classes start, Hocking College in Nelsonville has about 120 more students
signed up for classes than the 4,581 it had last year.

In addition to students getting used to Hocking College’s new schedule, campus officials credit
new efforts to make it easier for students to enroll, an expansion of its Logan campus and new
academic offerings for the uptick. But it’s doubtful that the school will bounce back to the more
than 5,900 students it had in 2011.

“We’re truly happy to be on the other side of the quarter-to-semester transition and are
cautiously optimistic about enrollment for this fall,” spokeswoman Laura Alloway said.

The University of Cincinnati expects to hit a record enrollment level of 43,000 students when
classes begin on Monday. That’s up 2.5 percent from last fall, which held steady from 2011 despite
the switch to semesters. This year’s record includes an all-time-high number of freshmen: 6,450, an
increase of nearly 7 percent over last year.

Ohio University officials also hope to welcome a larger freshman class and more transfer
students next week than in 2012. Applications and housing deposits are running ahead of last year
for both groups. Classes begin Monday.